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Lily Mueller waits patiently in line to collect her treats at Trunk-or-Treat, an event hosted by New Mexico State University-Alamogordo at NMSU-A Tays Center Tuesday evening. Jacqueline Devine/Daily News

Not only did people dress up in costumes but so did their pets. This little chihuahua came dressed as a fairy princess to Trunk-or-Treat, an event hosted by New Mexico State University-Alamogordo. Jacqueline Devine/Daily News

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Halloween is a time to play tricks and give away treats but the Alamogordo Elks Lodge is giving away much more than that. They are giving back to the community by helping the less fortunate and fundraising for local non-profit organizations.

Elks Lodge Community Activities Chairman Scott Greenwood said the event will feature 40 businesses and non-profit organizations volunteering to pass out goodies to children.

“We’re going to have about 40 businesses and non-profit organizations and Elks Lodge members that are setting up and handing out candies to the kids and other trick-or-treat items such as Halloween pencils and things like that,” Greenwood said. “We’ll also have free hot dogs and bottled waters for everybody, 94 Key will be there doing a live remote as well. We’ll also have a DJ set up inside and a big screen with cartoons and movies playing for kids and adults. Also potentially, we’re still working on it, it depends on what the weather is like but we might have a big hot air balloon that’s going to be lighted up to draw more attention on the street.”

He said the reason the Elks Lodge is putting on the event is so that the kids in the community can have a safe place to trick-or-treat without parents having to worry about walking on the streets and what they’ll get in their goodie bags.

“We do Trunk-or-Treat so that we can provide the kids in the community a safe place to come and get candy and enjoy themselves and not have to go door to door and have parents worry about what they’re kids are going to get,” Greenwood said. “It’s a fun environment that we provide and the kids can come through and in a matter of about 20 minutes they have a full bag of goodies and they’re good to go.”

Greenwood said the Elks Lodge is sponsoring a couple of non-profit organizations such as Love INC by doing a canned food drive for them.

“We’re doing a canned food drive for Love INC. The first 2,000 kids that bring canned goods will receive a special treat which will be a free kids meal at Chili’s,” he said. “We also have Kayla’s Promise, which is a dog rescue. They will be there with a few of their adoptable animals. We help with a little bit of fundraising prior to the event to give back to the non-profits that show up.”

Greenwood said the Elks Lodge also gets sponsorships from the Alamogordo VFW and Twice Blessed Thrift Store.

“It’s actually a really big event, we do quite a bit with it. With this event it’s something that we’ve been doing for the last six years, we team up with 94 Key and a couple of other organizations in town,” he said. “We do our own fundraising so we get sponsorship from the VFW and Twice Blessed Thrift Store. They make donations to us. It’s a really cool event, it’s very organized and it’s just a lot of fun.”

Greenwood said they had 5,000 people in attendance last year and they expect a big crowd this year as well since Halloween will land on a Saturday.

“I have everyone get there and set up in the parking lot by 5:30 p.m. because kids will already be lining up around 5:15 p.m. and then we let them get started as soon as we have everyone in place which is around 6 p.m.,” he said. “Last year we had about 5,000 people in attendance and that was on the night of the last Tigers football game. This year we’re doing it on a night where there’s no football so we’re expecting a pretty big crowd. We’ll have a couple of members from the Corvette Club in town that will take some spots too.”

Greenwood said the participation every year is always great and they also have support from different law enforcement entities.

“There’s going to be a lot of good participation. Not to mention we’ll have probably about 20 law enforcement type vehicles such as fire trucks, an ambulance, Border and Highway Patrol and State Police will be there,” he said.

Greenwood said he wants to emphasize that Elks Lodge isn’t just doing this for Halloween but they really are giving back to the community in a big way.

“One more thing that we do, each year we select a family in the community that needs some extra assistance. Maybe they can’t afford to buy their kids costumes so this year we selected a family and we picked them up on Saturday, my wife and I and a couple of other committee members,” he said. “We took them to Walmart and bought their kids costumes and pails to collect treats and we also bought them some groceries to get them through for a little bit.”

Greenwood said even though the event is for residents to have fun in a safe environment, it helps those in need at the same time.

“It’s Trunk-or-Treat but with the Elks Lodge it’s so much more than that. It’s really a community event and we really do a lot with it,” he said. The sponsorship of the family, Love INC and Kayla’s Promise Animal Rescue, it’s a good event that has a lot of heart.”